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Mugabe's elderly live on 13p a month

The Sunday Times, UK. March 26, 2006

Christina
Lamb, Bulawayo

IN ONE hand Frank
Wiggill holds his monthly pension statement and in the other a 500 gram
packet of salt. It is the only thing in the supermarket that his pension
will buy, unless he prefers to splash out on two
eggs. When Wiggill retired after 38 years as an
engine driver on the Zimbabwean railways, he looked forward to enjoying his
twilight years in comfort. Instead he and his wife Jeanette depend on
monthly food parcels from well-wishers and handouts from their son in South
Africa. The collapsing currency combined with the world's highest
inflation - estimated at more than 1,000% a year - has cut their pension to
13p a month.

"It's
embarrassing," said Wiggill, 79. "I worked all my life and here I am living
on food parcels of milk powder and toilet paper." His monthly pension of
Z$49,000 is less than the cost of a newspaper (Z$50,000) or a loaf of bread
(Z$70,000). It would take him two months to buy a pint of milk (Z$89,000)
and nine months to afford the cheapest pack of four toilet rolls
(Z$440,000).

"The pension is a laugh," he
said. "It must cost them Z$25,000 to post the statement." This month the
Wiggills received nothing. Deductions for three items on prescription
(Z$30,000 a time) after Wiggill cut down a cactus and got poisonous sap in
his eye left him Z$41,000 in debt to the pension
company.

At the same time the monthly rates
on his bungalow have increased to Z$679,124. Water and electricity are
extra.

Like most Zimbabwean pensioners, the
only way the Wiggills can survive is by selling their possessions. First
they sold their Ford Cortina. Then Frank's beloved piano and Jeanette's
sewing machine. Next to go will be the precious Royal Doulton plates
commemorating the centenary of Cecil Rhodes's founding of
Rhodesia.

They placed the proceeds from the
car with a lump sum from their son in an investment fund from which they
received a monthly income. But two months ago the fund was suspended,
leaving them with no income apart from the
pension.

"We'll keep selling more and more
till eventually we'll have nothing left," Jeanette
said.

After learning from auctioneers that
pensioners were selling their furniture to buy food, people in the community
set up the Bulawayo Help Network. Three groups formed. One, which helps to
pay rates and rent, is funded by a benefactor; one donates medicines; and
the other provides food parcels for 200
pensioners.

All the organisations asked not
to be named, fearing that President Robert Mugabe would close them and
arrest their volunteers.

That helping
pensioners is a clandestine activity in Zimbabwe illustrates just how
repressive the Mugabe regime has become. Many of the pensioners say they
would die of hunger were it not for the volunteers. The Wiggills' case is
typical. According to one of the distributors of the food parcels, some
receive as little as $4,000 - less than
1˝p.

"I've come across some so desperate
that they are living on blackjacks (seeds)," he said. "My own mother-in-law
receives just Z$4,000 and she is a diabetic whose drugs cost at least $4.5m
a month."

Yet they are well aware that in
their pleasant homes with crocheted seat covers and proper beds, they are
still better off than millions of black Zimbabweans, many of whom had their
homes demolished last year in Operation Murambatswina, Mugabe's clean-up
campaign, and are now living in makeshift shelters of plastic sheets and
scrap metal.

After comfortable middle-class
lives, sending children to good schools and employing maids and gardeners,
the white pensioners find it difficult to get used to charity. "They've
turned us into welfare cases which is not a nice feeling when you've worked
all your life," said Val Goodes, whose husband John worked for 36 years as
an auditor for the railway company and has a pension of Z$129,000 (about
30p).

Like the Wiggills, the couple are
sent money by their children. "You just scrape by," said Goodes. "We long
ago stopped buying dairy products or fruit. When the kettle blew up, we
found an old pot. When the iron went, we stopped ironing things. Now the
element has gone in the oven so I can't
bake."

Their biggest fear is falling ill. The
public health system is in such a state of collapse that hospitals do not
have sterile gloves or hand-wash solution. Private hospitals demand money up
front. "As for dentists, well I will just have to die with the broken teeth
I have," Goodes said. "It's very stressful," Wiggill
agreed. "I lay awake at night worrying about the situation, which doesn't
help the health." Finding himself almost destitute is not easy for a proud
man who worked throughout the bush war in the 1970s when his trains carried
armed guards and had three steel trucks on the front in case they hit
landmines.

"I feel so isolated," he said. "I
used to go with friends to the pub for a beer or fishing but now cannot go
anywhere, so I don't know what's going on."

The
couple's television and hi-fi blew up in a lightning storm. Their only
source of entertainment is a transistor radio.

It is
too far to walk into town and there is no bus service. The few old people
who go to a supermarket often stare dumbfounded at the million-dollar prices
and leave with a single egg or a bread roll. To buy this may mean queueing
for an hour as shoppers count out stacks of Z$20,000
notes.

The last official inflation figure was 782% in
February, but most businesses estimate that it is well over 1,000%.
University students recently went on strike in protest at astronomical fee
increases. Arts and humanities courses rose from Z$3m to Z$30m a year and
medical courses from Z$4m to Z$60m.

Mugabe said
recently that the solution to the economic crisis was printing more money.
The dollar is now worth so little that some people use petrol vouchers as
currency.

Most shops have counting machines or scales
but some have stopped counting, preferring to compare the heights of bundles
of notes. "I just let people pay in bricks," said the owner of an upmarket
Harare restaurant where bills often reach
Z$50m-Z$60m.

Christina Lamb will be talking
about her new book on Zimbabwe at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival
on Tuesday at 12.30pm

Million Dollar Loaf ?

Dear Family and Friends,Almost every night now the electricity goes off for
at least two hours andthat's if we are lucky. In the last week the daily
power cuts have ranged from 1to 6 hours at a time and they almost always
coincide with the main evening TVnews bulletin. In these circumstances
it is very hard to keep track of what ishappening in the country - both
news and propaganda. Frankly most people wouldrather not know anymore as
it's all just too shameful. On the one evening whenboth electricity and
news were on at the same time this week, I watched a groupof
agricultural experts presenting the facts and figures about the
imminentwinter wheat crop. It made me feel very afraid for
Zimbabwe.

According to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Agriculture, Zimbabweis planning to plant one hundred and ten thousand
hectares of wheat this winter.If everything was as it should be, this
hectarage would yield four hundredthousand tonnes of wheat - this,
coincidentally, is almost exactly how muchwheat the country needs for a
year. According to the agricultural expertsthough, this 110 000 hectares is
unrealistic in the extreme and three mainfarming unions said that at best
they would only be able to plant 45 000hectares this winter. The reasons
were glaringly obvious. A shortage of tractorsfor ploughing was one
reason, no fuel was another and then there were the nittygritty's like
money, pesticides, fertilizer and irrigation. A pesticide expertsaid
there are currently only enough chemicals in stock to treat thirty
thousandhectares of wheat - just over a quarter of the government
planned crop.Referring to crippling controlled prices imposed by the state,
the fertilizerrepresentative said that unless government allowed them to
charge viable pricesthey would go out of business. The expert didn't
give figures but said there wascurrently "hardly any fertilizer in the
country" and that 72 000 tonnes wouldbe needed for the wheat crop. The
final "challenge" to the winter wheat crop wasapparently going to be
ZESA . (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) Theexperts pointed out that
wheat is dependant on irrigation and said that anyperiods of "outage would
derail the crop." Outages, in ordinary English, arepower cuts and the
acronym ZESA, it is now joked, stands for ZimbabweElectricity Sometimes
Available.

In March 2005 a loaf of bread was four thousand eight hundred
dollars. In March2006 that same loaf is sixty six thousand dollars.
Unless something dramatichappens in the next few weeks and assuming prices
continue to rise at theirpresent rate, a loaf of bread in March 2007 will
be nine hundred and eightthousand dollars. Imagine, almost a million
dollars for a loaf, what shame uponZimbabwe. It is impossible to believe
that just six years ago we were called the"Breadbasket of Africa". Until
next week, love cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 25March 2006 http://africantears.netfirms.com

Zim Now Resembles War-Torn Country Under Mugabe -
MDC

Zim Daily

Saturday, March 25 2006 @ 09:04 PM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent THE opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) has equated the damage done to Zimbabwe's economic
fabric through mismanagement by the Zanu PF government, to a post-war
situation in which immediate reconstruction is usually needed by the
administration coming into power. Tendai Biti, the party's secretary general
and also shadow minister for economic affairs, told Zimdaily that the
dislocation of economic fundamentals in Zimbabwe mirrored that of a
war-ravaged economy.

This situation, Biti said, had compelled
the economic affairs committee he heads in the MDC, to draw up an "Audit and
Options" paper to carry out an audit of the national economy as it stands
right now. The party's Strategy, is an economic recovery and stabilisation
plan aimed at ending the vicious cycle of poverty and job insecurity, among
its other targets.

The audit and options paper will be
presented to the party's national executive, he said. "Our economy is
actually rapidly sinking into a scenario found only in countries that have
gone through war...The situation we are witnessing right now is akin to the
one that existed in Europe after the Second World War," said Biti. "You
can't stabilise a situation whereby the per-capita income of a Zimbabwean is
less than US$40, compared to that of a Tswana whose per-capita income is
US$2 000. This is the real problem we face as an incoming government," said
Biti.

Tapiwa Mashakada, the party's shadow minister of
finance, added: "You can't look at orthodox economic measures alone because
they can't adequately redress the structural distress." Although the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) is carrying out an audit of the
manufacturing sector, preliminary reports say more than 500 companies have
closed shop during the last two years. Formal sector employment has declined
by more than 25% over the past two years with informal sector opportunities
declining even faster. This has been reflected in the loss of more than 400
000 jobs. Domestic and foreign debt continues to balloon and some
multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund are now even
considering firing Zimbabwe.

Foreign currency inflows
have dwindled to a trickle as exports have decreased substantially due to
many big companies relocating to neighbouring countries or closing shop as a
result of the harsh operating environment.

Govt Dithers Over Another Fuel Increase

Zim Daily

Saturday, March 25 2006 @ 09:03 PM GMT Contributed by:
correspondent THE government is developing cold feet over another
fuel price increase that could push the price of leaded petrol to around
$180 000 a litre. Zimdaily has it on good authority that government and some
members of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) are now thinking twice
about a third round of fuel price increases, fearing ugly protests.
Government, in particular, is concerned about the impact of further mass
actions on the economy and its political future. The increases would put the
price of diesel at around $155 000 a litre.

Mike
Nyambuya, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, ducked questions by
Zimdaily yesterday saying he has addressed the issues before. Sources,
however, said another fuel price increase can only come after the
implementation of a *censored*tail of measures agreed by members of the TNF.
ZCTU has threatened to pull out of the TNF, throwing into doubt the future
of the New Economic Recovery Programme. Government is being accused of
making unilateral decisions violating the principles of the TNF to which it
is part.

"The issue of another fuel price increase is a hot
potato at the moment, given the resistance put up by the ZCTU. "If the issue
is to be considered at all, it would be after taking into consideration
views from other members of the TNF," a senior government official said. As
government dithers on the way forward, the situation at the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) is getting desperate. As long as the fuel
prices remain at current levels, Noczim will continue to incur
loses.

The fuel procurer is said to have run out of the cash
to purchase foreign currency required to import fuel resulting in the
appointment of Syfrets Merchant Bank (Sybank) to head a team of financial
advisors to raise $6 trillion on behalf of Noczim.

Mbeki To Broker Mugabe Safe-Exit Plan

Zim Daily

Saturday, March 25 2006 @ 08:50 PM GMT Contributed by:
correspondent

President Mugabe, under heavy local and
international pressure to step down, has called for a constitutional
amendment that will allow an interim President to be appointed by his Zanu
PF party and pave the way for fresh elections for a new government. Official
sources said this was the message that had been communicated to President
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who is seen as a key player in delicate
manoeuvres towards a transition from a dictatorship to democratic rule in
Zimbabwe.

It is understood that Mugabe wants his hand picked
successor Joice Mujuru, to be the interim President, although this could not
be confirmed. Mbeki, who recently met UN secretary general Kofi Annan over
the issue, is scheduled to lead a three-member, high-powered team to Harare
within the next two months to iron out Mugabe's proposed exit plan,
according to the sources. Zimdaily heard that Annan told Mbeki to keep the
momentum going following Mugabe's positive signals in a birthday interview
on ZTV last month.

In the interview, Mugabe hinted that
he was considering stepping down as land redistribution that he had so much
wanted to see implemented had been addressed. Mbeki is expected to work out
a safe exit plan for Mugabe that will make him immune from prosecution for
human rights abuses committed during his 26-year rule. Mugabe is
particularly worried about the Matabeleland and Midlands massacres of the
mid-1980s after he unleashed the Korean-trained 5 Brigade, led by the now
Air Force of Zimbabwe boss, Perence Shiri, on the people of those provinces
in suppressing an armed dissident uprising.

Thousands of
innocent civilians died in what is now referred to as the Gukurahundi
atrocities. Mugabe has not apologised officially to the people of
Matabeleland and Midlands for the atrocities, although he expressed regret
for "the madness" at Vice-President Joshua Nkomo's burial in 1999. Official
sources told Zimdaily that Mugabe is concerned about "the future of his
family and property, his party's simmering succession problems, a possible
power vacuum after his departure and subsequent infighting within Zanu
PF".

The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, a key player in any
power transition, is on record as saying that Mugabe's security after he
steps down will only be guaranteed in the context of a negotiated settlement
of the current Zimbabwe crisis. Mugabe has stated that he is prepared to
talk to the opposition leader if he drops his election results court
challenge and recognises him as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai has flatly refused to agree to those conditions. Mugabe won the
presidential election in 2002 in controversial circumstances. The poll was
condemned internationally as being fraught with irregularities and glaring
rigging.